Lottery night giveth and taketh. The Brooklyn Nets finished 16-66, tied for the league's worst record and tied for the best No. 1 odds at 14% — and fell all the way to the No. 6 pick when the balls broke for Washington instead.
It stings in the abstract: Brooklyn was as close to the top pick as the math allows and ended up outside the top five. But the consolation fits the rebuild they're actually running. At No. 6, mocks have the Nets taking Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr., the most explosive downhill lead guard in the class — exactly the kind of on-ball engine a roster starting from scratch can build an identity around.
Acuff's combination of first-step burst, finishing through contact, and improving pull-up shooting profiles as a real lead-guard answer, and at six he's arguably better value than the marginal upgrade Brooklyn would have gotten reaching for a different archetype higher up. The Nets needed a creator; they're slated to get the best one available at their slot.
The broader lesson is one tankers relearn every May: odds are odds, not guarantees. Brooklyn, Indiana, and Washington all sat at 14%, and only one jumped. The Nets didn't get the prize, but they're positioned to walk away with a foundational guard — which is more than Indiana, whose pick conveyed out, can say.
See the full post-lottery order on our 2026 NBA Draft Board.